July
12th Romans
14 (The Separation of sons of God)
Weak believers – Be
understanding
1:
Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations. 2: For one believeth that he may eat all things:
another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3: Let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4: Who art thou that
judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or
falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him
stand. 5: One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth
every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6:
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that
regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that
eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that
eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7: For
none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8: For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die
unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
9: For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and living. 10: But why dost thou
judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11: For it is
written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God. 12: So then every one of us shall
give account of himself to God.
In
this passage Paul tackles the difficult issue of a christian who is
weak. This is not a weakness in body or in education but weak in
conscience. Weak in conscience means to be in a state in which the
conscience accuses the christian of things that they are doing when
in fact there may not be anything wrong about it before God. They are
just oversensitive about some things. And they feel that if they did
these things then God would be displeased. We as christians are to
receive fellow christians who are like this but not to argue with
them or try to change their minds against their will. Paul gives
examples of this. Some people seem to be able to eat the most
disgusting things, things that were declared unclean in Judaism but
another christian who more sensitive in his conscience cant bring
himself to eat them. Both sides are to treat each other with respect.
The christian who feels free to eat anything must not look down on
the one who cant. And the one who refrains from this food must not
condemn the other christian. Both are christians and both have been
accepted by God. We are not to condemn and pass judgement on each
other because each man is answerable to God alone. Another example is
a christian who celebrates a day as more sacred than another. But his
christian friend treats every day the same. Each to his own. Each man
must be persuaded in his own mind. Both are to live to God. None of
us lives just to himself but has regard to his brother. All of us
will stand before Christ at the judgment seat of Christ where we will
receive reward for faithful service. We will all give account to
Christ.
- What is a weak christian – in this passage?
- How should the strong christian live in relation to the weak christian?
- Cant we as Christians just ignore others and live only as if to God alone?
No comments:
Post a Comment